260 The Philippine Journal of Science 



Small reef-dwelling eels occurring throughout the tropical e 

 the species few. 

 Myrichthys maculosus Cuvier. Plate 10, fig. 



Mursena maculosa Cuvier, Regne 



Animal 2 (1817) 232, 



(}\>\ I 



maculosus Richardson, Zool. Voyage Erebus and Terror, 



Ophi'chthys maculosus Gunther, Cat. Fishes Brit. Mus. 8 (1870) 81; 



Fische d. Siidsee (1910) 401. 

 Myrichthys maculosus Weber and Beaufort, Fishes Indo-Austr. Arch. 



3 (1916) 284, fig. 129. 



Depth 38 to 47 in length; head 14.5 to 17 in length and 5 to 6 

 in trunk; head and trunk together much shorter than tail, being 

 from two-thirds to three-fourths as long as the latter; eye 8 to J 

 in head and 1.5 to 2.5 in the broad, convex snout; mouth moder- 

 ately large, extending well beyond eye, 3 to 4 in head; dorsal 

 commencing on nape, the vertical fins extending almost to tip 

 of tail; pectorals very small, rounded, their length 6.5 to 10 m 

 head. Teeth on intermaxillary plate largest, conical, about six 

 in number; vomerine teeth in two rows, blunt, conical, extending 

 much farther backward than those in jaws; maxillary teeth 

 small, the forward half in two rows, posteriorly m one row; 

 lower jaw teeth in two rows, the forward ones larger than those 

 at back of mouth. 



White or whitish, with three rows of alternating circular 

 brown spots, the middle row largest, the other rows extending 

 on to fins. 



A handsome, slender eel, reaching a length of 1 meter, i 

 have examined a specimen in the collection of the Ateneo de 

 Manila, obtained in Surigao, Mindanao, having the following 

 dimensions: Length, 311 millimeters; head, 21; trunk, 109; tail, 

 181 ; gape, 7.5 ; eye, 2.25 ; snout, 4 ; pectoral, 3 ; depth, about 40 

 in length. 



This eel is evidently a greedy feeder, as the belly of this speci- 

 men was lumpy with masses of freshly captured prey while the 

 tail of a partly swallowed shrimp projected from its throat. 



After the above had been written a fine specimen, 528 milli- 

 meters in length, was added to the Bureau of Science collection. 

 It was obtained at Iba, Zambales, February 4, 1922, by Mr. H. R. 

 Montalban. In life the ground color was yellow ; this has grad- 

 ually faded until now it is little evident. 



